Download or read book Strong, Beautiful and Modern written by Charlotte Macdonald and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2013-01-20 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a wave of state-sponsored “national fitness” programs swept Britain and its former settler colonies, laying the foundations for the twentieth century’s obsession with fitness. In Strong, Beautiful and Modern, Charlotte Macdonald shows how governments encouraged citizens to be healthier and more active and thereby reinforced the cultural ties of the Empire. Alongside these state-sponsored efforts was a growing emphasis from business, the medical establishment, and popular culture on the importance of having “a better body.” At a time when government concern over public health issues such as obesity is once again on the rise, Macdonald offers valuable lessons as to why the first national fitness drive was ultimately a failure. Drawing on extensive research, Strong, Beautiful and Modern is a lively investigation into the way people and their governments think about health and well-being, and how historical views have shaped our modern life.